Lexie the Caretaker
by Yolanda Bush
Summary: i believe instead of lexie being killed shonda shouldve used an approach more like izzie's where the character simply leaves with the possibilty of return So heres my opinion on how shonda couldve wrote something like that into the storyline. Lexie gets news that her sister was in a car accident and requires surgery. Its a long taxing recovery. Molly needs a caretaker.
1. Chapter 1: I quit

I hate all this hype and fighting about lexie dying, whether or not she should've been killed and the fact that chyler leigh wanted to leave the show. In my opinion her character should not have died. Shonda let Izzie, Preston, and Erica leave why shouldn't lexie have been allowed to go her own way as well with a possibility of return? In my opinion something more like this which I have just written should've happened because it leaves it more open to viewers and is less discomforting, especially since they could use Little Grey incase Ellen pompeo doesn't want to return after her contract is up and they still wish to continue the show. Or she could've had her own spinoff show like Private practice (even though I would've probably hated it just like I hate private practice.)

Chapter one: I quit

Meredith had been called into the Chief's office. She didn't know why but she really hoped it wasn't something about Cristina. She was tired of Hunt using her and Cristina's friendship against her by always going to her for help. But on the other hand she always hoped that she hadn't done anything wrong. She'd dodged enough bullets lately. She didn't need another scandal. As she approached the door to Chief Hunt's office she couldn't help but over hear loud bickering from two familiar voices. They both sounded angry between their dialogue and loud screaming. Meredith slowly began to push the door open hearing chunks of what the two were saying.

First she heard Hunt say, "I can't spare a doctor for four days let alone four or more months."

Then she heard the female voice say, "Then have someone fill in for me. Have April fill in for me! She needs a job anyways!"

Meredith knew that voice. She did live with the girl. It was her sister. It was Lexie. What was she talking about? Meredith tried to be quiet because she wanted to hear what was going on but as she tried to slip in through the small gap she'd made in the doorway she bumped her elbow on the wallmaking a thud. Both doctors immediately turned their heads from the conversation to see.

Meredith took in the scene as quickly as she possibly could. Her half-sister was in her scrubs with her hands on her hips and her long hair pulled back in a messy but sleek ponytail. She had a frustrated expression written all over her face. Her brow was furrowed and her jaw was clenched tight. Hunt just looked fed-up and had-it-with. As soon as he realized it was Meredith he let out a deep sigh and motioned for her to come in while saying, "Oh thank God it's you Meredith. Could you please come in and talk some sense into your sister?"

"Oh that's just rich. My sister. You called my sister down her to try and talk me out of this. Well I got a newsflash for you Chief, my sister doesn't control my life or make my decisions. This is my choice. No one is talking me out of this. I've already made up my mind. Just grant me the damn leave already." Lexie exploded, gesticulating her feelings like she always does.

"What's going on?" Meredith asked in utter confusion and oblivion.

"Dr. Grey here wants me to grant her a 4 plus month leave of absence from the program so that she can fly out to the base her sister lives on and stay with her to take care of her through her illness." Hunt stated unhappily.

"Molly's sick?"

Lexie teared up and said, "She's not sick but she's well…Injured. Last week she was in a really bad car accident when she was driving my niece Laura to her dance lesson. The car struck on Molly's side. Molly thought she was alright but after a few days she started to have terrible pain in her back to the point where she collapsed down the stairs. She was rushed to the hospital when they discovered that the accident had fractured one of her vertebrae. She's scheduled for a spinal fusion surgery in a few hours. My Dad is already on a plane there. He called me to let me know."

"So why do you need four months off then?" Meredith inquired, still unclear.

"Eric is on tour in Iraq. Molly is all alone with little Laura. She can't take care of her daughter and herself while trying to recover from major surgery. I have to go out there and help nurse her back to health. She's my baby sister. Meredith…You're my big sister…. You know what that's like. She needs me right now." Lexie explained.

"But…But if Thatcher's going out there then he can take care of her….Right? Why do you need to do it? You can visit and help for like a week and then let him stay for the rest of the time." Meredith proposed.

Lexie shook her head with a smile, "My Dad couldn't even take care of me and my sister when we were stuck home with a sore throat. He's not the nursing and caring kind of person. He'd go insane if he tried to do that."

"Then…Then hire a live-in nurse or have them bring the girls here until she's better." Meredith said with a hint of hysteria, desperate to keep her little sis from leaving for half a year.

"Mer…This is my family. You may not know her that well…But I do. I don't think you understand. I can't let them suffer. I can't let my niece live half a year with some strange caring for her and her mother. It's her first year of school. If they come here she won't be able to be with her friend's in her own town. That's not fair to her." Lexie stated in a low and sad voice, "I hate to leave but…I have no other choice. I gotta do this. I wasn't here for my the birth of my first niece and the complications that Molly had during the pregnancy and I wasn't here when my own mother died….I'm not going to miss this too. I owe it to them to be there."

"Please…There's gotta be some other solution. What about your job? What about your friends and your family here? I mean what about your life? Are you willing to put that all on hold for so long?" Meredith asked inquisitively.

"For my baby sister and her daughter…Yes. And I would do the same exact thing if it were you Mer." Lexie answered intensely.

Meredith sniffled as her nose began to drip and her eyes watered. Lexie quickly walked up to Meredith and wrapped her up in a hug as they both cried.

"I'm sorry that I have to go…But it won't be too bad. I'll be back before you know it." Lexie sobbed. They both gave a small laugh and smile to each other even though neither of them felt happy at the moment.

"L…Lexie I…I'm sorry to tell you this but I can't let a doctor on her last year of residency go out of practice for nearly half a year and then let her just pick back up where she started again." Hunt broke into their happy moment to inform.

"Please, Chief Hunt. You know Lexie. You know she can do it. She's smarter than every person in her class put together. She's got a brain that could compete with a computer. Can't you just this once let it…" Meredith tried to defend her sister as they stood close together with Meredith's hands squeezing Lexie's shoulders.

"No Meredith. It's okay." Lexie grabbed her sister's shoulders back. After a brief moment of staring into her sister's eyes Lexie turned towards Hunt with a despairing but confident look on her face, "I quit. You can give my spot in the program to April…permanently."

Hunt's face was probably almost as shocked looking as Meredith's was. They didn't see that coming. Quit. She _just quit. _It was insane. It was spontaneous in a not so good way. What was she thinking?

"Lexie, don't rush into this. You can think of a better way," Hunt tried to coax.

"I love Seattle Grace, but it's just a place of work. I can still be a doctor anywhere I want too. And if I can't be a doctor here then I guess I'll have to find a new place to finish my residency." Lexie said firmly, keeping her posture straight and strong.

"You're really serious about this?" Meredith realized. Lexie didn't answer her; she simply turned her pupils toward her for a moment, not moving from her pose for a second.

"No. I'm not letting you do this. I'm not going to let you through away your career and your future like this. You're good Lexie. You're one of the best residents I've seen. You're not only smart, determined and skilled. You're also brave, gutsy, but emotional, kind to the patients, you feel like a friend to them which is very important when making your way up to the top. You can't just let that slip away Lexie….You've work too hard. I know that this is all you want because if you cared that much about family…You'd probably still be with Mark Sloan right now and you'd be married and living in a nice home with your own children." Hunt got into Lexie's face, trying to make her change her mind by bringing Mark back into the picture.

They both could tell that they had pinched a nerve because Lexie's eyes had gone black and the look on her face was completely sinister. "Don't you dare bring Mark into this equation," She yelled, pointing her finger at Hunt.

But Meredith was the one to advance on the subject, "Well you can't avoid this forever Lexie. If you leave right now for what…Six or so months like you say you are, what do you think is going to happen? Mark is older than you; he doesn't have as many years left. He's trying to start his life before it ends. By the time you get back in six months he could be engaged…Or already married. Heck he could have another little one on the way in six months. This is _Mark _we're talking about."

Lexie's face immediately turned to hurt as she huffed a painful inhale and began to weep. She cast her eyes down and scrunched up her face from the agony that the thought of Mark committed to another woman for life was bringing her. "Stop," She murmured lightly.

"You love him. You don't want him with anyone else because you want to be with him. But if you aren't here…Then there's nothing and no one keeping him from making that next move with Julia." Meredith finished her spiel.

"You're asking me to choose between my person relationships and my family."

"Mark is not just a relationship to you….Mark is…Mark's uh….He's your Derek." Meredith struggled to find the words.

"He's what?" Lexie mumbled in an astonished and confusion tone.

"You know. He's the Derek to your Meredith. Even though the man has hurt you in the past so bad that you didn't want anything to do with him…He still keeps coming back. He keeps popping into your mind. He keeps you from having normal relationships with other guys. He makes you love him even more each and every time that you're apart. He's your perfect match, yet it's a match made in hell. You get it?" Meredith tried her best at the analogy she was trying to make.

"Yeah I get it…I'm just telling you that I can't choose him. Not over my own blood relatives. Sometimes you have to choose between the things you love most. I may regret this someday but I'm going. It's final. My dad is going to stay with Molly for the six to eight days she'll be in the hospital. I think a week should be enough notice to put in before I'm through here. He'll monitor her and Laura until I get down there. I'll have my things packed this weekend. That's five days. Then I'll be gone by next Monday. A total of seven days. Then I'm out of Seattle." Lexie spoke. "Thank you for your time and concern Chief Hunt. It means a lot to me."  
With than Lexie maneuvered between Hunt and Meredith, whose jaws were dropped to the ground, and slid out the door.

"I don't believe this…" Hunt muttered.

"We need to change her mind. I can't let her go through this. It could possibly ruin the rest of her life. Her career, her love interest, her future, her life. It's all going to be shattered. I love my sister a lot. I honor that she wants to help our other sister but I can't let her follow through with this." Meredith explained rapidly, her emotions taking over.

"Calm down Meredith. It's going to be alright." Hunt assured and grabbed her in a hug to comfort her as she wept.


	2. Chapter 2: Let her go

Meredith chased after her little sister Lexie. She got out through Chief Hunt's office door and called down to her sister who was a few feet away, storming off intently. "Lexie. Don't you think you should you know…Think this over a bit more before jumping into something this serious?"

Lexie turned around on her heels with the most annoyed expression on her face and gave a deep sigh, "Look. I've thought about this already. I've been thinking about it all day. I know in my heart that my choice is the right one. It's not the one that I like most but it's the one I'm sticking to. I've got work to get back to...We can talk more later at home, or at Joe's after work over a drink, okay?"

Meredith nodded helplessly and then let her sister get back to her day's work. This all felt so surreal. It was so fast. Too fast for her taste. Meredith tried to imagine her life without Lexie being around and it was surprisingly uncomfortable and unlikeable. To think a girl that who'd been someone she never wanted to meet, a girl whom she despised so much when having to be around her, could have such a large impact on Meredith's life. It was astonishing.

"What do we do then Grey?" Hunt came up behind her to question while Meredith stared aimlessly in the direction Lexie had gone.

"…..We let her go," Meredith answered.

Lexie walked as fast as she could back down to the Pit where she was assigned for the day. She snuck in hoping that Bailey wouldn't notice, but almost immediately after she grabbed her charts she heard the familiar, assertive tone of Dr. B coming from behind her as it sarcastically said in a sassy way, "Hmmm did you think I wouldn't notice you sneaking off Grey?"

Lexie clenched her face together from being caught and then swiveled around with a nervous, "please let me off easy" smile painted on her face. "Sorry Dr. Bailey, I was actually in the Chief's office…" Lexie sad regrettably.

Bailey's face dropped from her angry expression to a more worried and intrigued one, "The Chief's office? Why? What's wrong?" Bailey said in a high voice.

"Um…Well…Its," Lexie tried to find the best approach as she stuttered nervously and gripped onto the blue binder for dear life. She didn't want any trouble. "I…I kinda….Quit."

Bailey's eyes lit up instantaneously. She had the most amazed and stunned face. "You did WHAT?" She yelled loudly, getting the attention of many bystanders.

"I…I..Uh…Well…It's more than…Than just that…I," Lexie began rambling, which she always did when she was in stressful situations, "It's my sister. Not the one that's, not um Meredith. It's my….Well my real sister. Umph well not that Meredith isn't my real sister…also but my. The one that shares buh…both of my….parents,"

"Lexie Grey. I don't care. Get to the point here." Bailey cut in to keep her from rambling on all day.

"Yeah. Right. Sorry. She's having surgery…On her spine. And her husband still on tour in Iraq. Right now he's out of reach so they can't contact him about his wife. She has no one else because she lives so far away. I'm her only chance. I have to go help her. She's got a daughter. She can't take care of her and take care of herself at the same time so she needs me…Because my father is not the best caretaker," Lexie simply stated.

"You sure this is what you wanna do? This is your career you're talking about Grey. It's not something you can waltz out of and waltz back in whenever you please. It takes building…And…And hard-work. You could lose everything you've been working towards. You are an aspiring woman Lexie. I know that your job is your biggest priority. It came before your own personal life. You haven't moved into a marriage or having a family of your own yet because you're dedicated to your job. That's why you broke up with Mark Sloan right?" Bailey started the spiel that Lexie was dreading. At the mention of Mark, Lexie slumped down and glared at the ground from the redundant annoyance and then with a hint of hysterical laughter added to Bailey's speech by saying, "Okay, again…This is not about Mark. He's not involved in all of my decision making. We're through, don't people get this? This is about my family. I have to help them. I can't just let them suffer for my own selfish reasons. You have a son. I know you'd do the same if Little Tuck was ill and needed his mother to help him through."

"You're right. I'm sorry. It's just that…You're so talented, I don't want you letting your talent go to waste. Promise me, you'll get back on track once your sister is better." Bailey demanded, staring into Lexie's eyes. She was being completely serious right now.

"I promise." Lexie announced.

Bailey patted her shoulder and then walked off. As soon as she was out of sight Lexie heaved out and was glad that she could finally breathe again.

"OOOOOOO are you in trouble with Dr. B?" Lexie heard from behind her. She turned to see who it was and made direct eye contact with Mark Sloan.

"Oh Mark it's you. What're you doing here?"

"Um…Well I work here," He answered cockily.

Lexie released a short "humph" of a laugh and then corrected herself by saying, "yes I know that, I mean down here in the Pit. I thought you'd be off giving some lucky teenager a nose job. What's a big, bad plastics surgeon doing down here in the land of sutures?" She joked.

Mark gave a good hearty laugh while signing a chart and then answered, "No, actually there was a trauma case last night at a construction site. One of the men that were working might need a skin graft for a bad burn on his face. I'm hoping the man to do the deed is me. Face transplants are the best."

"Hm what kind of construction work was that?" Lexie joked again in an enthusiastic voice.

"They were firing the tar on a parking lot at a high school when one of the workers walking by slipped and feel, took a face-full of flame thrower and then a face-full of sticky tar." Mark informed.

"That must've been enjoyable." Lexie said sarcastically.

"Yeah that's for sure," mark joined in her sarcasm with a chuckle.

Lexie stood for a moment in the silence, just watching him finish his chart when she suddenly felt the urge to tell him. He should hear it from her. She owed it to him to at least do that much.

"Hey Mark," She started. But Mark had avoided, or not heard her and looked up from his papers to say, "Hey by the way, if I do land this guy for surgery you should scrub in. I know that our teamwork helped us ace the last face transplant we did together."

"Sure," Lexie grinned. She just hoped that surgery would be within the week….Or else she wouldn't even be here to perform it.

It was back to silence. This was Lexie's chance.

"I'm leaving Mark," She threw up the words as quickly as possible. Mark looked up from his work with the most confused look on his face.

"Leaving? What do you mean _leaving? Like leaving Seattle leaving? _Where are you going?" Mark interrogated immediately.

"The base my sister lives on….She's having surgery on her spinal cords. She was in a car accident and it fractured a vertebrae. I have to go out there to be with her and my niece Laura. Her husband is out of the country touring . She doesn't have anyone else. I'm going to be gone for a few months."

"What? Are you kidding me?" He said, obviously shocked, as he turned all the way around to face her.

"Unfortunately no…And it's….It's not just that. I…I had to quit. Hunt wouldn't give me the vacation time. It was the only other option." Lexie admitted.

Mark flung is head forward, raising his eyebrows. "What! I'll go talk to him right now! What kind of sonofabitch won't let a girl take off work to nurse her sick family member? That's crap. I'll make him change his mind." Mark began to walk past her but Lexie grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"No Mark. He's right. I can't expect him to just let me leave the program for all that time and then just pick back up where I started. There's nothing he can do. He did the right thing. It's not his fault. Don't take it out on him. If anything, take it out on the sorry sonofabitch that ran a red light and lipped my sister's car in a four way intersection."

"How long exactly will you be gone for?" Mark asked curiously.

"I can't be sure. It's a hard recovery though. I'll need four months minimum." Lexie stated.

"This is insane. I don't believe this. There's really nothing else you can do? Why don't you have her come to Seattle and live with your Dad until she heals." Mark suggested.

"I thought about that but it's just not right, it'll be too hard to transport her all that way after surgery. She'll be in pain. There are too many factors that make the other options impossible." Lexie let him know.

"Well…When are you going?" He continued his questions.

"Next week. Monday I think. I'm booking my flight tonight when I get home from work."

"What about your life here? You're gonna leave it behind for that long? You have Meredith and Zola here. By the time you get back Zola could be speaking perfect English!" Mark reminded her of what she'd be missing in Seattle.

Lexie turned away as a tear welled up in her eye and whispered, "Don't remind me,"

"It's your last year of residency. One more year and you'll be picking your specialty. This is what you've been waiting for Lex. You can't give it up," Mark pleaded.

"Family comes before everything else." Lexie put it simply.

Mark's eyes narrowed as he muttered, "It didn't when _I _wanted to start one with you,"

Lexie suddenly looked up to see his angry face. But before anything else was said he closed his binder and stormed away.


	3. Chapter 3:Loud and Clear

Lexie tried not to take Mark's little fit too personally. She got back to work and pushed it out of her head. She tried not to think about him any longer. Maybe this was her sign that it was time for them to move on for good. Mark was with Julia, and he was happy. Why should she take that away from him? And besides, it wasn't Mark that she should be worrying about right now. Her sister was in pain, eagerly waiting for her to fly out and help her. Her surgery was scheduled in one week. Lexie planned to be there for every second of it. Mark couldn't come in the middle of this decision. She wouldn't let that happen.

"Good afternoon Doctor Grey," A nurse and 46 year old mother of three named Clara shouted out from her desk.

Lexie nodded with a friendly,"Hi," as she continued to walk, but the nurse blindsided her with a questioning statement, "I hear your sister is having surgery. I wanted to give my condolences,"

"Thanks so much Clara. Wow news really travels fast around here." Lexie walked back and leaned against the desk to converse lightly for a few moments before getting back to work.

"Yeah that's for sure," Clara confirmed, while holding a call on the corded phone.

"I gotta get going. Thanks again. You're the sweetest." Lexie leaned across and patted her shoulder.

"Bye," They both said their farewells and then Lexie was back to working.

Lexie realized this was only the beginning. Clara was merely a co-worker and it was already hard for her to say goodbye. What happens when she has to leave all of her close friends, colleagues, house-mates? As Lexie contemplated these things she couldn't help but notice the recent spike in her popularity in the hospital. Just a few minutes after her talk with the Chief and already everyone in Seattle Grace knew she was leaving. Nearly every person employed in Seattle Grace that walked past her took the time to at least say hello to her. Some of the people she didn't even recognize. It was an odd feeling. Being recognized by peers simply for the fact that she would be departing soon. It wasn't a fame she wanted. It wasn't like she'd just performed an amazing surgery successfully. That would be something she'd be proud of getting attention for, but this….This was not something she was taking pride in. Abandoning her career and life to take care of her baby sister was admirable and something she was proud to be doing but she felt like the more people brought it up, the less she was willing to follow through with her plan. It was like the constant reminder was making her realize what its effects could truly be on her goals. And it was scary. What if she could never get back on track?

"Meredith!" Mer heard the loud and angry sounding exclamation from down the hall. She turned around to discover Mark Sloan charging towards her.

"Yeah?" She replied in a questioning tone.

"You heard about Lexie?" Mark demanded with crazy eyes.

"Yes," Meredith admitted unhappily.

"And you aren't going to do anything about it?!" He called her out, gesticulating and drawing attention to himself.

Meredith gazed around to see the hungry eyes that had fallen on them from the scene Mark was causing. Then she kindly asked Mark to calm down and lower his voice.

"No. I'm not intervening for two reasons. One being that Lexie is an adult now, it's time that we all butt out and let her make her own decisions and two….As much as I hate that she's going I respect the reason she's leaving. Family comes first for her and I understand why she feels the need to do this. I'm not going to try and change her mind. She's a smart girl…She can decide for herself what's right." Meredith answered.

"This is going to ruin her career! Don't you care about your own sister screwing up her life?" Mark insisted while getting up into Meredith's face.

Meredith stood extremely still and stared into Mark's eyes.

"Both of them are my sisters Mark. Even though I'm not close to Molly, she's still my half-sister. I don't want her being sick being of our own selfish wants. What Lexie is doing is simply self-less. And that's the kind of person Lex is. She was willing to jump into surgery the second she heard her father needed a liver." Meredith continued trying to explain to Mark.

"But…She…She just can't do this. I have a bad feeling about this. She's not going to be able to get her job back. I mean we're over booked here at Seattle Grace." Mark came up with another excuse.

"Seattle Grace is just a place of work, there are many more out there for her…..Mark….This isn't really about her job is it?" Meredith interrogated him.

"What are you accusing me of?" Mark raised his eyebrow.

"Admit it Mark,"

"Admit what?!" He exclaimed in oblivion.  
"That all of this commotion is not because you're upset that you're losing a fine addition to the surgical world. Face the truth…You're upset because you're losing her and you're afraid you might never get her back. You're scared that if she leaves now she may never return to Seattle because she might move on to bigger and better things." Meredith stated. But Mark didn't answer. He just stared back at here with a bad poker face. His expression screamed at her that he knew she was right. Meredith took the silence to her advantage to finish off their conversation on this topic.

"listen, this can be your opportunity to right things with her. You can finally finish things between you two so that she can move on. She deserves a life Mark. But you keep holding her back from that….Because she loves you. More than anything. She can't function properly because of you. If you'd just let her know that there's no chance you two are ever getting back together…Maybe then you two can figure out a way to be apart….For good,"

Mark still stood looking very hurt, yet looking like Meredith was right in the situation.

"Do what you please Mark. But don't do it half-assed okay? If you're finished then finish. If you want to continue things with her….Then continue things with her. Or whatever. I'm not good at advice okay. I'm trying here but it's just not my specialty. Do you at least get what I'm saying?"

"Loud and clear," Mark answered and turned around and left.


	4. Chapter 4: Hey Lexie, wait up

"Hey Lexie wait up!" Mark screamed to get Lexie's attention. Lexie turned stopped and turned around so Mark jogged over to her.

"If this is another reason why I shouldn't leave then I don't want to hear it, okay Mark?" Lexie continued to walk, making Mark follow her.

"It's not." Mark answered. This got Lexie's attention. She turned around to face him with her eyes slit in a questioning glance.

"I was wrong. I shouldn't have yelled at you or tried to coerce you. And I definitely should not have brought up our past affairs. I just want to apologize." Mark cooked up the courage to tell her.

Lexie was shocked and touched by his simple apology. She let a smile slip. "That's very kind of you Mark. You really have changed, haven't you?"

"Hey, I try." Mark laughed at her compliment. After a moment of gentle laughter and smiling at each other Mark scratched his head and stated, "So…The man I was talking about earlier. Name's Albert Brandt. He's going to need that face reconstruction surgery after all. The spot as my second-hand is still open if you're up for it. It's scheduled tomorrow at 2 o'clock."

"I appreciate the offer Mark. You know I'll be there. Count me in," Lexie continued to smile as she gave him her answer.

"Good. I'll see you there." Mark patted her shoulder with a large toothy grin and then turned to leave.

Lexie watched him for a few seconds and then called out, "Oh wait Mark!"

Mark whipped around immediately and said, "Yes?"

"Thank you for being so understanding. It means a lot to me."

"Just remember when you're far far away nursing your sister back to health that I'll always be here for you. I'm just a phone call. No matter how late or early it is. I'll always take your calls. I'll always be the guy you can talk to and say anything you need to. That won't ever change Lex." Mark told her in a serious way that made Lexie understand fully that he still cared for her as much as she did for him. She couldn't help but smile at that moment.

"I promise I won't ever forget."

"Pinkie?" Mark held out his pinkie to her with a devilish grin.

She accepted it by grabbing a hold with her own pinkie. "Pinkie promise," She shook it.

"Shoot I gotta go," Mark took a second to glance down at his Rollex, "sorry I'd love to stick around and chat but I'm behind schedule…And I'm sure I'm holding you back from your own work too so I'm just gonna scram. But don't forget to leave your two o'clock on Tuesday open!" He shouted out to her as he began to walk off in the opposite direction.

Darn. This would be the hard part. It was already starting to get hard. Saying goodbye to all of her friends for a half a year. Not getting to see their bright shining faces in person would be tough. She lived with them, worked with them and basically spent everything living moment around them. And now all of a sudden she'd be entirely on her own. Just her sister, her niece and her. Thinking about it only made things worse. She liked her life. She didn't think it was perfect, but she wouldn't trade it for anything else. But now she had to kiss it all goodbye for who knows how long. But as she'd heard before…Sometimes goodbye is a second chance. Who knows? Maybe leaving could be a good thing for her. She sure did want a change. Her life had been stuck in a rut the past few months and all she wanted was to be out of it so she could walk free once again. Was this her one opportunity? She sure hoped so because if not…..It would be a long year for Lexie Grey.


	5. Chapter 5: Old Times

Tuesday at two o'clock came around sooner than Lexie had expected. A whole day had disappeared it what seemed like a matter of minutes and now she was scrubbing in for a huge face transplant with her ex. As she washed her hands thoroughly with the bar of soap Mark Sloan slipped into the scrub room.

"You ready for this?" He said, in a pumped up voice.

"More than ever," Lexie replied after her heart stopped pounding. She swallowed hard on the mask and readjustment her scrub cap. "You are ready for this," Lexie muttered under her breathe, but she wasn't talking about surgery, she was thinking about the move she'd be making next week.

She followed Mark into the OR that awaited before her.

"What do you Know Little Grey, maybe you'll even get to make the incision….All by yourself." Mark awarded her.

Lexie smiled from excitement. She was geeked. Another face transplant was good enough, but now she was getting the honor of making the first cut. This was quite an exciting day for her. It was these kind of things that made her sad to leave her hometown. She sure would miss Seattle. Seattle was her home. Even when she was off at college it just wasn't the same away from her rainy city.

"Here's your big shot Lex. Wow me," Mark smirked under his mask as he watched her step up to the patient.

"Scalpel please," She demanded from a scrub nurse. Then she began her work.

"Nice. Very even. Good work," Mark complimented.

"Now here comes the fun part. Now it's not an entire freaking face that we get to replace, just a portion of his left side but even so we still get to make the skin flap. Here we go," Mark said, "You grab one end and I'll get the other. Gently, take your time."

Lexie could feel the emotions build up now. This was all too familiar. The déjà vu had already set in. It took her back to the time when they were secretly dating and they'd performed this same surgery, side by side.

"Perfect," Mark announced as the skin was laid down. "And in a fraction of the time it took us the last time we did this. You've really improved Little Grey. I'm proud of you. You…You are going to make a great surgeon,"

Lexie looked into his eyes. All these compliments were starting to get overwhelming.

"Now we just gotta close it up and we'll be out of here. Boy oh boy, and only three and a half hours. We are good," Mark admired their teamwork.

After they were completely finished and back in the scrub room Mark walked up to Lexie and congratulated her work again, "You've really got a knack for that Lex. You're an incredibly smart woman and I wouldn't blame you for specializing elsewhere…But plastics just may be your thing,"

Lexie couldn't take this now. She ripped off her mask and cap and stuffed them in the garbage and stormed out. Mark was startled and confused so he followed after her as she began to turn the corner.  
"Hey wait a minute, was there something I did Lex?" Mark asked, grabbing her arm and turning her towards him.

"Yes. You had to be….You," Lexie remarked. "And all those compliments and us working together again. It was just…Just like,"

"Old times?" Mark interjected with his suspected answer.

Lexie relaxed and calmed herself, "It just reminded me too much of the time when we were together is all. And the thing that scared me most was that….I enjoyed today so much….It just makes me not want to leave,"

"I know. I think the reason I wanted you in there today with me so bad was because I don't want you to leave either… We were just starting to be friends again and I….I'll miss that." Mark informed.

Lexie was a little bummed with his use of the word "friends" but she accepted it as sweet anyways. And it was almost too much for her to handle. She felt the emotion inside her until she was about to explode. She burst out into tears and flung herself into Mark's arms.

"I'm sorry," Mark mumbled into her shoulder as he rocked her back and forth.

"It's alright," She answered, sniffling. "Thank you for everything. You've been a great…Friend," Lexie forced herself to use that term….Even though she hated to admit that they were only friends. And that would probably remain now….Forever.


End file.
